ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS The third early Anglo-Saxon site in Rutland is Cottesmore, where excavations for ironstone have brought to light a few relics of that period as well as a hoard of the Bronze Age noticed elsewhere. As the two small pottery vases and shield-boss from this site were not excavated with any proper supervision, it is impossible to say if they belonged to an isolated grave or marked the confines of a cemetery that has yet to be revealed ; but it is permissible to infer from the shield-boss that a fighting-man had been laid to rest on this spot, which was probably near his home. The vases are of com- mon type and manufacture, resembling fig. 3, but the shield-boss deserves special mention for a gilt bronze stud attached to the point. This has been illustrated (fig. 4 on coloured plate) as being somewhat of a rarity and a good example of debased animal form, which can only just be recognized in the interlacing bands that fill the central space. Other shield-bosses ornamented in this way are known from the neighbouring county of Northampton,"^ and from Harrington, Cambridgeshire.'^ Repeated references to Northamptonshire and Leicestershire will have prepared the reader for the conclusion, based on archaeological evidence, that Rutland was formerly the home of Anglo-Saxon settlers who were closely akin to those in the valleys of the Nene and Soar. Mixed burials are found in all three counties, and the relics that come from inhumations indicate with fair consistency the 6th century as the earliest date for Teutonic settlement in force. The cinerary urns may be earlier, but as datable objects are but seldom found in association, it would be unwise to consider them as evidence of an earlier immigration. There must have been extensive woodlands in Rutland, and the population cannot have been dense at any point, but there are peculiarities about the county that have perplexed historians and are not explained by the extant series of finds. The late Mr. Grant Allen ^" suggested a connexion between the British Ratae, the tribal name of Leicester, and the mysterious Rutland, adding that this alone of the Mercian shires is not named after its county town. ' Apparently it remains a solitary example of an old native Mercian division which has outlived the West-Saxon redistri- bution of the country into shires on the southern model, rudely mapped out around the chief Danish burghs. In this connexion it is interesting to note that Danish local names are unknown in this county.' Danish relics are likewise unrecorded, in spite of the proximity of Stamford, which belonged to the confederation of the ninth and tenth centuries known as the Five Burghs ; and one is almost forced to the conclusion that apart from a few early settlements on the belt of Northampton Sand, Rutland in pre-Norman days was deserted forest, like the vast tract of Rockingham across the Wel- land, where Anglo-Saxon finds are altogether wanting. Another view as to the early affinities of the county may be based on the dialect. In this respect Rutland belongs to the north-eastern group which comprises also Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, counties that were not occupied by Saxons or Anglians exclusively in the early period. More closely connected with Rutland by dialect are Cam- '• Barton Seagrave {F.C.H. Northants, , 244, fig. 9). " Baron de H.iye, Industrial J rts of the Jngl.-Sax. 35, fig. 6. " County and Town in England, 104. I 105 14
